Denzel
Washington and Mark
Wahlberg co-star this weekend in the action-comedy "2 Guns," which was
shot largely in and around New Orleans. Here are five cool things to know about
director Baltasar Kormakur's film before heading to theaters:

5. Keeping score.
"2 Guns" continues a white-hot year for the local film industry. It is the 25th
Louisiana-shot film to play in local theaters, with the majority of those being
national releases along the lines of "This Is the
End," "G.I.
Joe Retaliation" and "Now You See
Me." With 30 weeks having elapsed so far in 2013, that's just less than one
locally shot movie hitting theaters every week.

4. Familiar faces.
As another sign of how busy the local film industry has been during the past few
years, the "2 Guns" shoot marked a return to New Orleans for many of the film's
principals. For starters, Kormakur and Wahlberg both shot the crime thriller "Contraband" in town
in early 2011. Wahlberg followed that up with "Broken City,"
shot in town in late 2011. Washington and Paula Patton both shot "Déjà Vu" in
town in late 2005 and early 2006, with Washington returning to Louisiana a year
and a half later to direct the Shreveport-shot drama "The Great Debaters."

3. New Orleans incognito. "2 Guns" shot in Louisiana for eight weeks in summer 2012, but
don't look for a wealth of French Quarter and Mardi Gras shots. The film is set
in Texas, with many of the exteriors shot during a two-week stint in New
Mexico. That doesn't mean that eagle-eyed viewers won't spot some Louisiana
locales. One key scene, for example -- when Wahlberg and Washington's
characters are sitting in "Mama Maybelle's Diner" as they stake out a savings and loan to rob across the street -- they really are in the Tangipahoa Parish city
of Amite. The diner wasn't really a diner, though. It was a historic house
dressed out with a new façade. And the savings and loan? It's really the
Amite Chamber of Commerce. Later, the Amite stockyards play a role in the film,
doubling for the stockyards of the film's heavy, Papi Greco, played by Edward
James Olmos.

2. All around town.
Other locales used in "2 Guns" include the lobby of Le Pavillon Hotel, which --
combined with a penthouse suite at Harrah's New Orleans hotel -- became the
fictional Camino Royale hotel. A number of local
neighborhoods also have cameos in the film, including the Audubon Park area
(where the character of DEA agent Marlon Jessup lives), River Ridge (where the
character of DEA agent Deb Rees lives) and Kenner (where Papi Greco's mistress,
Daisi, lives).

1. Lightening up.
Both Wahlberg and Washington say the reason they signed on to shoot "2 Guns" in
the first place is simple: It offered them both a chance to lighten up a bit. "I was coming off of
doing the movie 'Flight' -- which was not a comedy," Washington said during an
interview Monday (July 29) on NBC's "Today" show. "And I was really looking to
do something different, something lighter, and have some fun. Wahlberg echoed
those sentiments: "That's really why we wanted to do it,"
Wahlberg said. "Because you've seen comedians do these kinds of things before,
but this has dramatic elements to it as well as the action, and the comedy is
just a nice change of pace for both of us."